Consequences
by CupCakeyyy
Summary: Albus Potter has a problem. He knows it. But he's too ashamed to ask for help.
1. Short version

This round was all about various kinds of prompts. Mine was to write a tragic story about next gen characters and I chose Albus Severus Potter. I love him to pieces and it hurt so much to read _The Cursed Child_ and see that the relationship between Harry and Albus isn't as I thought it was... I want them to love each other!

Also, I had to delete over 500 words for this to still be under the maximum 3000 word mark, so if anyone wants to read the long version, I will upload it as a second chapter to this one. Judge? The first chapter (meaning the short version) is for you ;)

 _Prompts:_

 _(word) control  
(word) radiant  
(opening sentence) It had happened again_

Enjoy reading :D

* * *

 **Consequences**

It had happened again. His pounding head was the proof of it.

A trembling hand left the soft material of whatever he was lying on and grabbed his head gingerly. He couldn't believe that it had come to this. He hadn't wanted this to happen!

He groaned and tried to shift in a seating position. A wave of dizziness hit him straight in the stomach and he puked all over his lap.

He was feeling like shit.

Everything was spinning, making him even dizzier than he already was.

Blinking rapidly, he gazed around the room he was currently in. His swollen eyes took in his surroundings.

He had no idea where he was. He had never before seen this room. The dark grey walls remembered him off the stone walls of the Slytherin common room, yet this wasn't his common room. There was a couch in front of a fire, not multiple couches splattered throughout the whole room in front of multiple fires that were warming up the usually cold dungeon.

Taking a deep breath, he gently pushed himself off of the small bed he had collapsed in last night. Or had it been afternoon? I frowned. He couldn't remember.

Standing there in the strange room, swaying slightly, he tried to recollect every memory he had of the last time he could remember. Mocking laughter, haughty comments, strong pushes...

He groaned as yet another piercing throb echoed in his head. A new wave of dizziness washed over him and it was all he could do to not puke all over himself again. He gasped, fell to his knees and threw up on the cobbles floor before him.

He felt disgusting. Not just because he was covered in cold sweat and vomit, but also because he had allowed himself to wake up in this room. He hated not being in control over his body, and as he stumbled over to the door that had just appeared in the wall, he let himself accept that he indeed had lost every last ounce of control he had once had over his body and, if he was completely and utterly honest with himself, probably over his own life as well.

A humourless chuckle left his stale tasting mouth and he hurried through the corridors towards the dungeon. He knew he was weak. He knew he wasn't anything like his father. He wasn't brave, he wasn't ready to stand up for himself, and although he hated to even think it, he knew that he was a shame to the name Potter. And for that he hated himself even more.

He stopped on a staircase and shook his head. Everything spun brutally around him, causing him to stumble and clutch his hand over his mouth to keep whatever was left inside his stomach.

Inhaling deeply, he allowed himself to breathe for a few minutes. The staircase underneath him had given up on waiting whether he'd decide to move anytime soon, and swung to its left again, with him still on it. That the ground he was standing on was moving now didn't help with his dizziness at all.

 _Oh, no_ , was the last thing he thought before he gasped, bent over and threw up over the edge of the moving staircase.

*~*Consequences*~*

Breathing heavily, he pushed open the fake wall and stumbled into the empty common room. Feeling the dizziness subside, Albus straightened his back and gasped. A lone figure was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to the boys' dormitories. He felt his pale face heat up. He hadn't meant to wake anybody up with his drunken stumbles, and he certainly wasn't ready for some faked concern.

The boy slowly stepped out of the shadows that had, until now, obscured his features, and Albus all but groaned. His best friend, Scorpius, was looking at him with a worried expression. His grey eyes trailed over Albus' mussed up hair, his pale and slightly ill looking face, over his dishevelled clothes, still from the day before, and back to his face again.

"You don't look well," he said blankly and continued to stare at him.

Albus scowled and lowered his eyes. He didn't want to feel the shame that he was about to feel when Scorpius figured out what was going on. His friend was clever, and Albus sometimes thought he was too clever for his own good. He thought feverishly how he could manage to make him brush it aside, let him get out of the common room and into the bathroom to have a much needed shower. He was afraid that people might smell the firewhiskey on him if they got too close...

"I'm alright," Albus figured he could tell at least a bit of the truth to make the lie more believable. That's what people said, wasn't it? Include fractions of truth to make your lie believable.

"Where were you last night?" Scorpius' eyes were wide, making him look insecure and painfully innocent.

Albus blinked slowly as the question filtered into his brain. The green light coming through the windows that showed the Black Lake were far too radiant, too intense. The pounding in his head increased.

"Out and about," he answered, staying as vague as possible, but as he saw Scorpius' face, he decided to stick to his _add truth to the lie_ plan. "I had a bit of firewhiskey yesterday and was pretty much too tired to get back to the dormitory. I'm sorry if you worried because of me; I really didn't mean you to. I'm fine, really, I just have a very bad headache. Nothing a hangover potion can't fix."

He tried to smile. He winced as a ray of sunshine shot through the water's surface and gave a short flash of bright green light. Usually, he'd say that was a pretty sight to come back to, but now he merely groaned, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply through his nose to keep from retching.

"Please," he moaned and clutched at a nearby chair to not topple over as another dizzy spell hit him. "Just give me a strong hangover potion, Scor. _Please_!" He knew he had just played his hangover down dramatically, but he just didn't care. He knew that if Scorpius didn't get him this potion in the next thirty seconds, he'd throw up all over the dark green cushioned sofa in front of him.

The worried expression on Scorpius' face got darker as he raised his wand and summoned the much needed potion. He handed it over and Albus tried to stop his hands from trembling as he hurriedly ripped the cork out of the small vial and downed the entire thing in one go. The effects were immediate. The common room stopped spinning, the colours stopped making his eyes water and the green light that was shining through the windows was much more appreciated than mere moments ago.

"Thank you," he said, relieved, and meant every syllable of it.

"Are you alright, Albus?" Scorpius really looked at him. He had dark bags underneath his usually bright green eyes, which were slightly dull looking now, even in the brightly lit common room. He was still pale, probably even more so, because the embarrassed flush had left his face and frankly, he looked absolutely horrible.

"Is something wrong?"

Albus spluttered and laughed hesitantly. "What should be wrong, Scor? I just drank too much yesterday. That can happen, all right?"

 _Yeah_ , Scorpius thought and watched Albus move past him, up the stairs and probably into their bathroom. _But you never drank on your own._

*~*Consequences*~*

The morning started as usual. Scorpius wasn't shooting him overly worried glances, none of his housemates seemed to have noticed his absence, or frankly didn't bother enough to notice, and on his way to the Great Hall, he only got intercepted once by the same annoying Gryffindor that had kept an eye on him ever since the school year had started.

"Potter!" Sebastian Corner yelled through the corridor and Albus groaned. The Great Hall was just around the corner. If he quickened his steps just a tiny bit... " _Potter_! I'm talking to you!"

Scorpius stiffened beside me, but kept walking as well.

Hurried footsteps, followed by a rough hand that grabbed his shoulder and spun him around made them both stop. Corner pushed Albus forcefully into the stone wall and Scorpius into the other direction where his friends were waiting to grab Scorpius and hold him there.

"Now, now, now," Corner smirked and pushed Albus back against the wall as he tried to help Scorpius, who was struggling Corner's two cronies. "Stay put, will you? I just wanted to have a chat."

A fist hit him in the stomach, causing him to double over and gasp in pain. He could hear Scorpius shout and struggle against the other two Gryffindors.

"I don't care who your daddy is, you understand?" He laughed and sneered down at Albus, who was struggling to keep his face in a neutral expression.

" _Leave him alone!"_

Albus' head snapped up as he heard someone hurry towards them.

"Stepping in to defend the other half of the famous next generation?" Corner scoffed and crossed his arms.

Annabeth Thomas shot her best glare at him and his cronies, her voice nothing more or less than a furious growl. "Leave them alone right now or I will tell Professor McGonagall!"

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He laughed and nodded to his friends who pushed Scorpius away from them as if he had an infectious disease they didn't want to catch and wandered off in the direction of the Great Hall.

"Hey, are you two okay?" Ann asked as she helped Scorpius up, who had tripped and fallen over.

"Yeah, we're fine," Albus mumbled, not looking at Rose's best friend. "Come one, Scor, let's go back to the common room. I'm not in the mood for breakfast anymore." He grabbed a spluttering and beet-red Scorpius by the elbow and started pulling him towards the dungeon, leaving a frowning witch standing behind them in the corridor that was slowly filling with students on their way to breakfast.

*~*Consequences*~*

The dizziness was back as they arrived at the now empty common room. Albus let himself fall into a leather chair and closed his eyes. He was sober, so why was the room spinning around him?

Scorpius exhaled soundly and wandered over to the fireplace to throw in some more logs. "I can't believe stupid Corner picked a fight before breakfast! Couldn't he have waited until _after_ breakfast? Then we would've at least had enough energy to run away and hide behind the next tapestry. And Ann! It was so brave of her to just yell at him like that. Don't you think, Al? Al?"

Scorpius stopped rambling and turned around to see his friend slumped into the chair, his face deathly pale, his whole body trembling as if he had just been plonked into a bath of ice water.

"Albus?"

Scorpius hurried over to his unresponsive friend, grabbed his shoulder and shook him none too gently.

"Albus!"

Fear was starting to bubble in his stomach. Recalling what Rose had done to him once he had fallen asleep in the owlery, waiting for a letter from his father, he raised his other hand and slapped Albus against his cheek, leaving his hand on his friend's skin.

It was ice cold.

*~*Consequences*~*

Harry gazed to his unconscious son lying in a white hospital bed at St. Mungo's. His skin was so pale that is nearly looked as white as the bed sheets.

He didn't know how this could have happened. He had seen him off to Hogwarts a mere four months ago, right after Christmas. He had been smiling, he had been laughing with Scorpius... he had been _healthy_. He had not been this sick looking boy, whose face was fallen in, whose skin looked greyish and who had big dark circles underneath his eyes.

Harry exhaled slowly and covered his face with his hands.

His son had been at St. Mungo's for a few days now. They had got an emergency floo call from a nearly hyperventilating Madam Pomfrey, telling them their son would have to be transported to the hospital because of a total collapse of his magical core.

Once both he and Ginny had arrived at the ward his son had been placed in, they had been ushered into the waiting room by a very strict nurse, who simply hadn't cared who he was and who he wanted to see.

They had been made to wait in there for nearly two hours as various healers worked to stabilize Albus.

A lone tear escaped his eyes as he stared at his unresponsive son. How could he not have seen? How did he not notice his son had a problem and needed help? It was his fault. It was his responsibility to make sure that his children led a happy life and he had failed miserably.

"Dad?"

Harry jumped as he heard the soft voice of his son call him.

"Albus!" He exclaimed and rushed to take his son's hand to squeeze it tightly.

"Where am I?" He blinked languidly and tried to remember how he got into this foreign bed.

"You're in the hospital, son," Harry said in a low voice as he checked his son over.

"Al, why didn't you tell me you had an alcohol problem?" Harry asked gently and winced slightly as he saw his son freeze.

"I'm not mad at you," he hurried to add, yet Albus didn't relax. He averted his eyes completely. Harry swallowed and tried to stay calm. Albus needed him to stay relaxed now.

"You collapsed at school," he started to explain, keeping his eyes on his son. "Madam Pomfrey said your magical core had collapsed, causing you to collapse as well. You were rushed here, where they did multiple tests on you. Albus," he waited until his youngest son looked him in the eye, "your core tried to heal the damage the alcohol has done to your cells. After a while, it couldn't keep up anymore."

Harry looked at him, imploringly. He didn't want to tell him, but he knew he had to. If anybody, Albus had a right to know.

Albus stayed quiet as he fought to keep his eyes on his father's, which had the exact same colour as his, another painful reminder of how much they were supposed to be alike and yet weren't.

"Your core can't heal itself anymore, son."

Dread settled itself into his stomach. He knew what his dad was trying to tell him as gentle as possible. If he stopped and felt into himself, he could feel it. He could feel that something was missing. He could feel that he didn't have any magic in his body anymore.

"Why did you start drinking, Albus?"

He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't take the _pity_ anymore that was shining in his father's eyes. He didn't _need_ pity!

"Do you have any idea what it is like to be your son?" He whispered quietly, his eyes, once again, stared at the white ceiling, so he didn't see his father wince. "Do you have any idea what it is like to not live up to everyone's expectations? That everyone expects only the best of you because of your father?"

Harry stared at his son, the son he loved so very much that it hurt. He knew it had to be difficult for his children to bear his name and his legacy. Of course, he knew that! He wasn't dumb. But seeing Albus suffer teared him up inside. He had always tried to be there for his kids. He had always made sure that they come first and then, and _only then_ , the rest of the wizarding world, because they were what was most important to him. Always had been.

He blinked rapidly as Albus kept going. He was ranting about what was happening in school, how people treated him, how his lifelong friend, Rose, had rejected him, all of it just because he wore the colour green and not red.

"I can't pretend anymore! I just can't pretend to be you because I'm not! Everyone wants another Harry Potter, but they got me instead and-"

"Albus-"

"No, dad! This is what it is like, okay? I'm not you! And I don't need your pity!"

"No, you listen to me now, Albus!" Harry hissed and grabbed his son's hands. Albus struggled and wiggled around in his bed and Harry let him. After a short while he collapsed back into his pillow. Tears welled up in his green eyes, making them glisten with emotions.

"You are not me and I don't want you to think you have to be! You have nothing to live up to just because others tell you so. You are your own person!"

A tear slid down Albus' cheek and Harry hurried to raise his hand to brush it away gently.

"I love you, Albus. I love you so much and I thought you knew that."

His son closed his eyes, his lips trembled. "I'm sorry," his voice was so low that Harry had to lean forward in order to understand him.

"Don't be," he smiled lovingly as Albus' confused eyes looked into his. "We will get through this, okay? Your mum and I will help you. You're not alone. You never were."

Sniffling loudly, Albus rubbed over his eyes. He fought a smile as his father's love washed over him.

"Okay," he mumbled softly, looking up at his dad, who held onto his hand, his thumb gently stroking the back of it. "Okay."

He let his eyes drift shut and listened to his father's soft humming, as sleep dragged him under.

* * *

Phew! I hope you liked it :)

Please leave a comment! I love reading and answering them!

 **Word count:** 2975

Until next time - see ya!


	2. Long version

Here it is! The full and original version!

Enjoy reading :D

* * *

 **Consequences**

It had happened again. His pounding head was the proof of it.

A trembling hand left the soft material of whatever he was lying on and grabbed his head gingerly. He couldn't believe that it had come to this. He hadn't wanted this to happen!

He groaned and tried to shift in a seating position. A wave of dizziness hit him straight in the stomach and he puked all over his lap.

He was feeling like shit.

Everything was spinning, making him even dizzier than he already was.

Blinking rapidly, he gazed around the room he was currently in. His swollen eyes took in his surroundings.

He had no idea where he was. He had never before seen this room. The dark grey walls remembered him off the stone walls of the Slytherin common room, yet this wasn't his common room. There was a couch in front of a fire, not multiple couches splattered throughout the whole room in front of multiple fires that were warming up the usually cold dungeon. The soft red colour of the cushions glared back at him. He didn't like the colour. It reminded him of the reason why he was here. Wherever here was...

Taking a deep breath, he gently pushed himself off of the small bed he had collapsed in last night. Or had it been afternoon? I frowned. He couldn't remember.

Standing there in the strange room, swaying slightly, he tried to recollect every memory he had of the last time he could remember. Mocking laughter, haughty comments, strong pushes...

He groaned as yet another piercing throb echoed in his head. A new wave of dizziness washed over him and it was all he could do to not puke all over himself again. He gasped, fell to his knees and threw up on the cobbles floor before him.

He felt disgusting. Not just because he was covered in cold sweat and vomit, but also because he had allowed himself to wake up in this room. He hated not being in control over his body, and as he stumbled over to the door that had just appeared in the wall, he let himself accept that he indeed had lost every last ounce of control he had once had over his body and, if he was completely and utterly honest with himself, probably over his own life as well.

He knew he needed help. He knew he couldn't manage to get out of this spiral of taunting, laughter, pain and drowning his sorrows on his own. It was impossible, yet he didn't have the strength to tell other people just how weak he truly was.

A humourless chuckle left his stale tasting mouth and he hurried through the corridors towards the dungeon. He knew he was weak. He knew he wasn't anything like his father. He wasn't brave, he wasn't ready to stand up for himself, and although he hated to even think it, he knew that he was a shame to the name Potter. And for that he hated himself even more.

His fingers started twitching again, yearning for yet another bottle of burning liquid, which would wash all of this pain away.

He stopped on a staircase and shook his head. Every spun brutally around him, causing him to stumble and clutch his hand over his mouth to keep whatever was left inside his stomach. No. It was the beginning of the day! It was in the morning – at least he thought it was because he had been able to sneak a glance out of one of the seventh floor windows to see the sun rising. He couldn't want a drink _now_!

Inhaling deeply, he allowed himself to breathe for a few minutes. The staircase underneath him had given up on waiting whether he'd decide to move anytime soon, and swung to its left again, with him still on it. That the ground he was standing on was moving now didn't help with his dizziness at all.

 _Oh, no_ , was the last thing he thought before he gasped, bent over and threw up over the edge of the moving staircase.

*~*Consequences*~*

Breathing heavily, he pushed open the fake wall and stumbled into the empty common room. The fires that had burned down sometime during the night were now alight. The house-elves had more work with the Slytherin common room than with all of the other three houses' common rooms combined. Living under the ground had its disadvantages.

He really needed a hangover potion, and fast! Feeling the dizziness subside, Albus straightened his back and gasped. A long figure was standing at the bottom of the stairs leading to the boys' dormitories. He felt his pale face heat up. He hadn't meant to wake anybody up with his drunken stumbles, and he certainly wasn't ready for some faked concern.

The boy slowly stepped out of the shadows that had, until now, obscured his features, and Albus all but groaned. His best friend, Scorpius, was looking at him with a worried expression. His grey eyes trailed over Albus' mussed up hair, his pale and slightly ill looking face, over his dishevelled clothes, still from the day before, and back to his face again.

"You don't look well," he said blankly and continued to stare at him.

Albus scowled and lowered his eyes. He didn't want to feel the shame that he was about to feel when Scorpius figured out what was going on. His friend was clever, and Albus sometimes thought he was too clever for his own good. He thought feverishly how he could manage to make him brush it aside, let him get out of the common room and into the bathroom to have a much needed shower. He was afraid that people might smell the firewhiskey on him if they got too close...

"I'm alright," Albus figured he could tell at least a bit of the truth to make the lie more believable. That's what people said, wasn't it? Include fractions of truth to make your lie believable. And that was what he needed right now, but since he knew Scorpius, he also knew that he would have to do more than just put a nice formulated lie onto the table and be done with it. His friend knew him too well.

"Where have you been last night?" Scorpius' eyes were wide, making him look insecure and painfully innocent.

Albus blinked slowly as the question filtered into his brain. The green light coming through the windows that showed the Black Lake were far too radiant, too intense. The pounding in his head increased.

"Out and about," he answered, staying as vague as possible, but as he saw Scorpius' face, he decided to stick to his _add truth to the lie_ plan. "I had a bit of firewhiskey yesterday and was pretty much too tired to get back to the dormitory. I'm sorry if you worried because of me; I really didn't mean you to. I'm fine, really, I just have a very bad headache. Nothing a hangover potion can't fix."

He tried to smile. He winced as a ray of sunshine shot through the water's surface and gave a short flash of bright green light. Usually, he'd say that was a pretty sight to come back to, but now he merely groaned, closed his eyes and breathed in deeply through his nose to keep from retching.

"Please," he moaned and clutched at a nearby chair to not topple over as another dizzy spell hit him. "Just give me a strong hangover potion, Scor. _Please_!" He knew he had just played his hangover down dramatically, but he just didn't care. He knew his behaviour was making Scorpius suspicious whether he had been telling the truth, but he just didn't care. And he knew that if Scorpius didn't get him this potion in the next thirty seconds, he'd throw up all over the dark green cushioned sofa in front of him.

The worried expression on Scorpius' face got darker as he raised his wand and summoned the much needed potion. He handed it over and Albus tried to stop his hands from trembling as he hurriedly ripped the cork out of the small vial and downed the entire thing in one go. The effects were immediate. The common room stopped spinning, the colours stopped making his eyes water and the green light that was shining through the windows was much more appreciated than mere moments ago.

Relieved, Albus sighed and shot a thankful grin towards his friend, who was still eyeing him sceptically.

"Thank you," he said and meant every syllable of it.

"Are you alright, Albus?" Scorpius decided to not react and continued to really look at him. He had dark bags underneath his usually bright green eyes, which were slightly dull looking now, even in the brightly lit common room. He was still pale, probably even more so, because the embarrassed flush had left his face and frankly, he looked absolutely horrible.

"Is something wrong?"

Albus spluttered and laughed hesitantly. "What should be wrong, Scor? I just drank too much yesterday. That can happen, all right?"

 _Yeah_ , Scorpius thought and watched Albus move past him, up the stairs and probably into their bathroom. _But you never drank on your own._

*~*Consequences*~*

The morning started as usual. Scorpius wasn't shooting him overly worried glances, none of his house mates seemed to have noticed his absence, or frankly didn't bother enough to notice, and on his way to the Great Hall, he only got intercepted once by the same annoying Gryffindor that had kept an eye on him ever since the school year had started.

"Potter!" Sebastian Corner yelled through the corridor and Albus groaned. The Great Hall was just around the corner. If he quickened his steps just a tiny bit... " _Potter_! I'm talking to you!"

Scorpius stiffened beside me, but kept walking as well.

Hurried footsteps, followed by a rough hand that grabbed his shoulder and spun him around made them both stop. Corner pushed Albus forcefully into the stone wall and Scorpius into the other direction where his friends were waiting to grab Scorpius and hold him there.

"Now, now, now," Corner smirked and pushed Albus back against the wall as he tried to help Scorpius, who was struggling Corner's two cronies. "Stay put, will you? I just wanted to have a chat."

"Of course, you do," Albus drawled sarcastically and tried not to show his fear. The years at Hogwarts and taught him that he had to keep his mask in place, so that people won't see anything they could use as a target.

A fist hit him in the stomach, causing him to double over and gasp in pain. He could hear Scorpius shout and struggle against the other two Gryffindors.

"Watch it, Slytherin," Corner hissed right next to his ear and pulled him back up, so that he wouldn't have to bend down in front of him to look him in the eyes.

"I don't care who your daddy is, you understand?" He laughed and sneered down at Albus, who was struggling to keep his face in a neutral expression.

"Pathetic, that's what you are. Can't even defend yourself against your school mates, can you, _Potter_?"

" _Leave him alone!"_

Albus' head snapped up as he heard someone hurry towards them.

"Stepping in to defend the other half of the famous next generation?" Corner scoffed and crossed his arms.

Annabeth Thomas shot her best glare at him and his cronies, her voice nothing more or less than a furious growl. "Leave them alone right now or I will tell Professor McGonagall!"

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "Always have been the one to run to teachers, haven't you? Well, have it your way. I don't have enough time to waste it dealing with Potter and Malfoy over there." He laughed and nodded to his friends who pushed Scorpius away from them as if he had an infectious disease they didn't want to catch and wandered off in the direction of the Great Hall.

"Hey, are you two okay?" Ann asked as she helped Scorpius up, who had tripped and fallen over.

"Yeah, we're fine," Albus mumbled, not looking at Rose's best friend. "Come one, Scor, let's go back to the common room. I'm not in the mood for breakfast anymore. He grabbed a spluttering and beet-red Scorpius by the elbow and started pulling him towards the dungeon, leaving a frowning witch standing behind them in the corridor that was slowly filling with students on their way to breakfast.

*~*Consequences*~*

The dizziness was back as they arrived at the now empty common room. Albus let himself fall into a leather chair and closed his eyes. He was sober, so why was the room spinning around him?

Scorpius exhaled soundly and wandered over to the fireplace to throw in some more logs. "I can't believe stupid Corner picked a fight before breakfast!" He exclaimed and threw the log into the burning fire with more force than necessary. Sparks shot out of the hearth, dying on the cold stone floor.

"Couldn't he have waited until _after_ breakfast? Then we would've at least had enough energy to run away and hide behind the next tapestry. And Ann! It was so brave of her to just yell at him like that. Don't you think, Al? Al?"

Scorpius stopped rambling and turned around to see his friend slumped into the chair, his face deathly pale, his whole body trembled as if he had just been plonked into a bath of ice water.

"Albus?"

Scorpius hurried over to his unresponsive friend, grabbed his shoulder and shook him none too gently.

"Albus!"

Fear was starting to bubble in his stomach. Recalling what Rose had done to him once he had fallen asleep in the owlery, waiting for a letter from his father, he raised his other hand and slapped Albus against his cheek, leaving his hand on his friend's skin.

It was ice cold.

*~*Consequences*~*

Harry gazed onto his unconscious son lying in a white hospital bed at St. Mungo's. His skin was so pale that is nearly looked as white as the bed sheets.

He didn't know how this could have happened. He had seen him off to Hogwarts a mere fourth months ago, right after Christmas. He had been smiling, he had been laughing with Scorpius... he had been _healthy_. He had not been this sick looking boy, whose face was fallen in, whose skin looked greyish and who had big dark circles underneath his eyes.

Harry exhaled slowly and covered his face with him hands. His elbows were positioned on his knees, which were twitching every now and then.

His son had been at St. Mungo's for a few days now. They had got an emergency floo call from a nearly hyperventilating Madam Pomfrey, telling them their son would have to be transported to the hospital because of a total collapse of his magical core.

According to Scorpius, Albus had fainted in the common room, trembling all over.

Once both he and Ginny had arrived at the ward his son had been placed in, they had been ushered into the waiting room by a very strict nurse, who simply hadn't cared who he was and who he wanted to see.

They had been made to wait in there for nearly two hours as various healers worked to stabilize Albus.

A lone tear escaped his eyes as he stared at his unresponsive son. How could he not have seen? How did he not notice his son had a problem and needed help? It was his fault. It was his responsibility to make sure that his children led a happy life and he had failed miserably.

"Dad?"

Harry jumped as he heard the soft voice of his son call him.

"Albus!" He exclaimed and rushed to take his son's hand to squeeze it tightly.

"Where am I?" He blinked owlishly and tried to remember how he got into this foreign bed.

"You're in the hospital, son," Harry said in a low voice as he checked his son over. He had stopped trembling and breathing normally again. Relief flooded his body as a very Albus-like expression crossed his son's face.

"Why am I... what happened?" He frowned and looked around confusedly.

"Al, why didn't you tell me you had an alcohol problem?" Harry asked gently and winced slightly as he saw his son freeze.

"I'm not mad at you," he hurried to add, yet Albus didn't relax. He averted his eyes completely. Harry swallowed and tried to stay calm. Albus needed him to stay relaxed now.

"You collapsed at school," he started to explain, keeping his eyes on his son. "Madam Pomfrey said your magical core had collapsed, causing you to collapse as well. You were rushed here, where they did multiple tests on you. Albus," he waited until his youngest son looked him in the eye, "your core tried to heal the damage the alcohol has done to your cells. After a while, it couldn't keep up anymore."

Harry looked at him, imploringly. He didn't want to tell him, but he knew he had to. If anybody, Albus had a right to know.

Albus stayed quiet as he fought to keep his eyes on his father's, which had the exact same colour as his, another painful reminder of how much they were supposed to be alike and yet weren't.

"Your core can't heal itself anymore, son."

Dread settled itself into his stomach. He knew what his dad was trying to tell him as gentle as possible. If he stopped and felt into himself, he could feel it. He could feel that something was missing. He could feel that he didn't have any magic in his body anymore.

"Why did you start drinking, Albus?"

He couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't take the _pity_ anymore that was shining in his father's eyes. He didn't _need_ pity!

"Do you have any idea what it is like to be your son?" He whispered quietly, his eyes, once again, stared at the white ceiling, so he didn't see his father wince. "Do you have any idea what it is like to not live up to everyone's expectations? That everyone expects only the best of you because of your father?"

Harry stared at his son, the son he loved so very much that it hurt. He knew it had to be difficult for his children to bear his name and his legacy. Of course, he knew that! He wasn't dumb. But seeing Albus suffer teared him up inside. He had always tried to be there for his kids. He had always made sure that they come first and then, and _only then_ , the rest of the wizarding world, because they were what was most important to him. Always had been.

He blinked rapidly as Albus kept going. He was ranting about what was happening in school, how people treated him, how his lifelong friend Rose had rejected him, all of it just because he wore the colour green and not red.

"I can't pretend anymore! I just can't pretend to be you because I'm not! Everyone wants another Harry Potter, but they got me instead and-"

"Albus-"

"No, dad! This is what it is like, okay? I'm not you! And I don't need your pity!"

"No, you listen to me now, Albus!" Harry hissed and grabbed his son's hands. Albus struggled and wiggled around in his bed and Harry let him. After a short while he collapsed back into his pillow. Tears welled up in his green eyes, making them glisten with emotions.

"You are not me and I don't want you to think you have to be! You have nothing to live up to, just because others tell you so. You are your own person!"

A tear slid down Albus' cheek and Harry hurried to raise his hand to brush it away gently.

"I love you, Albus. I love you so much and I thought you knew that."

His son closed his eyes, his lips trembled. "I'm sorry," his voice was so low that Harry had to lean forward in order to understand him.

"Don't be," he smiled lovingly as Albus' confused eyes looked into his. "We will get through this, okay? Your mum and I will help you. You're not alone. You never were."

Sniffling loudly, Albus rubbed over his eyes. He fought a smile as his father's love washed over him.

"Okay," he mumbled softly, looking up at his dad, who held onto his hand, his thumb gently stroking the back of it. "Okay."

He let his eyes drift shut and listened to his father's soft humming, as sleep dragged him under.

* * *

There you go!

I hope you liked it! Leave a comment if you did. I always read and answer them!

Until next time - see ya!


End file.
